Quote of the Day

Here's a very enlightening anecdote from Peter Bart's 1998 book The Gross: The Hits, the Flops, the Summer That Ate Hollywood. Bart is having dinner with Warren Beatty, who had just made Bulworth, and Beatty has taken umbrage with a column of Bart's in Variety that argued inflated star salaries were dooming Hollywood. Beatty claimed Bart was wrong and that stars were completely worth their $20 million fees:

"Aren't you uncomfortable taking this position?" [Bart] queried. "After all, one of the major points you make in Bulworth revolves around the unfair apportionment of income in this country. A tiny minority makes the big bucks, and the rest of the nation isn't doing any better than they did one or two generations ago -- that's your thesis, right?"

Beatty did not even blink. "Stars are different," he intoned. "We're talking about movie stars." And having made this important distinction, he picked up the menu and started ordering. (The Gross, p. 191)

So that's why it's okay for stars to live luxurious, rarefied lifestyles while preaching forced wealth redistribution for everyone else: They would be exempt. Because stars are different.

Of course, the answer is perhaps simpler: Celebrities are largely leftists because their bosses, from their directors to the heads of casting to the heads of the major studios are largely leftists, and at least for now, they hold the keys to breaking into the industry and advancing.